More than one year one from the departure of Seth Gordon, this is the first tangible sign of progress to come out of the video game movie in some time, and had scheduling arrangements fallen in his favor, Carnahan told the outlet that he would have gone one step further and took Gordon’s vacant place at the helm. “In a perfect world I would love to do both, but right now, I’m only on board to write the script,” he said.

Buoyed by the recent launch of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Carnahan’s appointment seems to represent a new drive at Sony to nudge the long-gestating project out of development limbo. That, and the filmmaker’s own interest in the swashbuckling adventures of Nathan Drake ensure that today’s news is overwhelmingly positive.

“Archaeology today is in itself an antiquity, but that world has always fascinated me. Especially when you go to a museum today and wonder how a piece got there to begin with. Plus, the property itself is so popular that it was hard to turn down an opportunity to work on it.”

Pitched as a joint production between Arad and Atlas Entertainment Production, Charles Roven is on board to produce the Uncharted movie, flanked by Avi Arad, Alex Gartner, and Ari Arad.